I felt inspired by the review of the Mafell jigsaw to post a brief review of my beast.
I had to get someone to bring this saw over from Germany, since it is apparently not sold in New Zealand or Australia.
Attachment 442119
I went for the CE body - there is a D-handle model available which is called the GST 160BCE, but the CE type appeals to me more.
The centre of gravity is lower, and with one hand above the blade and one hand on the barrel I have superb control over my cuts.
I've never had much luck with cutting curves with the D-handle saws I owned in the past without the blades going crooked in the cut...
not any more! My other main factor for going for a GST 160 over the locally available GST 140 is a supposedly much improved blade guide system. I've not owned a 140, so I cannot compare the two from my own experience. Plus - extortionate pricing. We're all aware of how we get ripped off in Australia and New Zealand on power tool prices. I paid 200Euro for a saw that is the big brother to a saw that costs about 600 NZD locally. Say no more, say no more.
The saw has a 800W motor, and I've cut through 6" of timber without hesitation; hardly notice a difference to cutting through a 4x2 except a tiny bit slower speed.
It comes with a dust extraction port that inserts into the back of the baseplate - and if you have the room to maneuver it works very
well indeed, particularly in view of visibility of the cutting action (and your pencil line). Sadly, when the hose of the shopvac is attached,
this becomes a lengthy contraption that is difficult to use in confined spaces. Unlike the dust extraction port on the GST 140 that has a
swivel built in, this one is straight only and that makes no sense to me.
Blade guides are very good indeed. The blade insertion is very easy, tool free, and a simple one handed affair. Blade ejection is spring
loaded with a lever on the left side of the saw: no burnt fingers, no fiddling with long screwdrivers or some such.
Speed control on the CE is at the rear of the body - not the best place for changing speed during cutting. The power switch is simply on/off, not
a speed control trigger as you find on the BCE cousin, and I find the switch on mine pretty damn stiff. If you have a power outage and accidentally leave the saw switched on, it will not run when the power comes back on - you have to turn it off and back on before it will come to life. A great safety feature that anyone will appreciate who had a belt sander take off across the bench after putting it down during a power cut :B.
What else can I say - it has the usual adjustable orbital action options, it has a built in blower (that is a lot less effective than the dust extraction port in keeping visibility up), it has an LED light that is always on so long as the saw has power. Making bevel cuts is also tool free, and the saw has very positive stops at 45 and 90 degrees, but is not limited to those. The speed control is very nice, even if hard to reach during operation. Having said that, for accurate cutting I run my saw on a speed setting of 3 out of 10, it operates at full power at low speeds and the control over delicate cutting is superb.
